Hello. My name is Judith Ashworth, and I am a licensed clinical social worker. I just retired from the Wellstar hospital system, where I had been working for 20 years, mostly as a behavioral health clinician. I ran groups and provided assessment and individual brief therapy on their inpatient unit. Within Path, I am looking forward to doing rational emotive behavioral therapy or REBT. This will provide quicker progress.
My approach
My basic therapy approach will be cognitive behavioral therapy—rational emotive behavioral therapy, and listening.
My focus
I have been pretty successful working on addiction, depression, and OCD. I feel comfortable working with severe psychiatric disorders as well. But I know that's not what this forum is all about.
My communication style
I listen. I give the client a lot of time to talk and then repeat what I've heard.
My journey to mental healthcare
I am 67. My mother had schizophrenia, and there was very little treatment for it in the 60s or 70s—just bad medication. And I saw her go through many hospitals and many breakdowns. My father died when I was 17, and I became her caretaker until she passed at 84. Only once in all those years did a psychiatrist ask me how I was doing. I guess I thought I could change the way we approach mental health.
My goals for you
After our first session, we talk about setting goals, and you state your goals. And then we talk through them, and I'll send you reminders of the goals before our next appointment together.
My first session with you
Time to talk and see if we can laugh a little and even cry a little. I will introduce myself because I'll probably know a lot more about you than you'll know about me.